Electric-light fixture



(No Model.) 2Sheets--Sheet l.

F. H. ALDRIGH. ELECTRIC LIGHT FIXTURE.

No. 458,769.. Patented Sept. 1,l891.

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' I'. H. ALDRICH.

ELECTRIC LIGHT FIXTURE.

No. 458,769. Patented Sept. 1, 1891.

IMI

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

FRED II. ALDRICH, OF CADILLAC, MICHIGAN.

ELECTRIC-LIGHT FIXTURE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters .Patent No. 458,769,datedseptember 1, 1891.

Application filed April 17, 1890. Serial No. 348,326. (No model.) Y

To a/ZZ wlw/72, t may concern,.-

Be it known that I, FRED II. ALDRICH, a citizen of the United States,residing at Cad* illac, in the county of lVeXford and State of Michigan,have invented a new and useful Electric-Light Fixture, of which thefollowing is a specification.

This invention relates to electric-light fixtures or devices foradjusting electric lights to and retaining them in various positions ofthe kind which has been shown and described in my application forLetters Patent of the United States, Serial No. 324,016, filed on the16th day of September, 1889, and allowed on the 13th day of January,1890.

My invention has for its object to provide a mechanism for adjustingelectric lights which shall be simple and efficient; and it may bestated to consist in the combination of a shell or casing, a shaft orspool Within the same, upon which the conducting-wires may be Wound, aspring, connections between the shell, shaft, and spring, whereby thelatter may be wound and unwound by the rotation of the shell around theshaft or of the latter within the shell, and the flow and return wiresor electrical conductors, said wires forming a single iiexible cordadapted to be wound upon the shaft within the shell and connected directto the electric lamp.

The invention further consists in the construction, arrangement, andcombination of parts, which will be hereinafter fully described, andparticularly pointed out in the claims.

In the drawings hereto annexed, Figure 1 is a vertical sectional viewshowing one form of my invention. Fig. 2 is a horizontal sectional viewtaken on the line 2 2 in Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is a vertical sectional viewillustrating a modification. Fig. 4 is a sectional view taken on theline 4 4 in Fig. 3.

Like numerals of reference indicate like parts in all the figures.

Referring to Figs. 1 and 2 of the drawings, 1 designates a shell orcasing, which may be of'any convenient and suitable shape, and which isprovided at its upper end with an opening 2 for the admission of theconducting-wires 3.`

4 and 5 designate a pair of disks or plates connected at theirperiplieries by a ring (i,

which is suitably secured near the lower edge of the shell or case.

7 is a shaft, the upper end of which is jour` naled in a cross-bar 8 inthe shell '1 and the lower end of` which extends through theplates 4 and5 and carries the lamp 9.

10 is a sleeve mounted loosely upon the shaft 7 between the plates 4 5and eXtending somewhat above the latter. A coiled spring 1l is arrangedin the casing formed by the plates 4 5 and rings 6,the ends of saidspring being attached, respectively,l to said ring 6 and to the sleeve10.

12 designates a brace or bridgepiece which is secured on the upper sideof plate 5, and which, together with said plate 5, alifords bearings fora short vertical shaft 13. The latter carries a pinion 14, meshing witha spur-wheel 15, which is secured upon the sleeve 10 above plate 5.Shaft 13 also carries a spur-wheel16, meshing with a pinion'l? upon theshaft 7. It will thus be seen that by rotating the shaft 7 within theshell or the shell around the shaft the spring will be wound or unwound,according to the direction of rotation. The lower end of the shaft 7 istubular for the passage of the conducting-wires, which make directconnection with the lamp at the lower end of said shaft. The latter isprovided with a slot 1S for the passage of the wires, which arey carriedover guide-pulleys 19,1nounted in the shell, and out through the opening2 at the upper end of the latter. lVhen the shell is made to revolveupon the shaft 7, the number of revolutions will be so small that itwill not damage the wires by twisting, as their elasticity will permitof their being twisted or untwisted slightly without damage.

It will be seen that by rotating either the shell or the shaft 7 thewires will be caused to be wound upon or unwound from the shaft,according to the direction of rotation, which should be so arranged thatwhen the wires are unwound from the shaft the spring 11 shall bewound,and vice versa. It will also be observed that by reason of thetrain of gears employed to transmit motion between the shaft 7 and thespring-winding mechanism several revolutions of the shaft (or of theshell around it, as the case may be) will be required to produce asingle additional convolution in the spring or to reduce its tension bya sin- TOO gle convolution, according to the direction of rotation. Bythis arrangement the capacity for adj ustment of the device is increasedwithout danger of straining the spring by overwinding.

To retain the device at any desired adjustment, any suitable check orbrake mechanism may be employed, which, however, must be differentlylocated, according to whether it be desired to cause the rotation of theshaft 7 within the shell or of the shell around the shaft to take place.In the former instance I may provide the shaft 7 with a circular plateor disk 20, having a peripheral series of teeth or cogs 21, engaging aspring-actuated catch 22, pivoted within the shell and having athumb-piece or handle 23, projecting through a perforation in the saidshell.

To operate, the shell is grasped with the hands 'and the thumb-piece ispressed to dis- -engage the spring-catch from the teeth 21, when bypulling or raising at will the shaft 7 will Vbe rotated to unwind orwind the wires. W` hen it shall be desired to cause the shell to rotatearound the shaft, a spring-actuated catch in the shape of a bell-cranklever may be' pivoted to the side of the lamp, asshown in dotted linesat 24, Fig. 1. Such a catch may, when the lamp, which, it will beremembered, is attached to shaft 7, is grasped, be readily operated tothrow it out of engagement with teeth or projections 25, formed on theunder side -of the plate 4, which, being part of the spring-case, isattached to the shell, thus permitting the latter to revolve around theshaft.

In Figs. 3 and 4 I have shown a modification of my invention, which'mainly consists in substituting for the coiled spring arranged in aseparate case a spiral spring arranged within the winding-shaft. By thismodification I have furthermoreshown the shell or casing to be connectedrevolubly to the ceiling, (or other point of attachment,) the lamp beingsuspended adjustably from the same by the conducting-wires.

The construction is as follows: 25 designates a cap or flanged diskwhich is permanently secured in any suitable manner to a vceiling orother point of attachment. The shell 26 is connected revolubly to saidflanged disk and is provided witha cross-bar27. The disk 25 has acentral perforated boss or col-- lar 28, from which depends a tubularshaft 29, the lower end of which has a bearing in the cross-bar 27. Thelower end of tubular shaft 29 has a plate 30, from which a tube 31extends upwardly, surrounding the tube 29 and terminating on a line witha circular` plate or disk 32, attached to the shell at or near the upperedge of the latter. To the tube 31, near its upper edge, is attached acircular disk 33, and above the latter, upon the tube 31, is journaledor loosely mounted a sleeve 34, which also has a bearing upon the lowerend of the boss 2S. The sleeve 34 is provided with annular flanges 35,be-

tween which is loosely mounted a pinion 36, which is firmly fastened tothe disk 32. A spur-wheel 37 is firmly secured upon said sleeve near itslower end. The disk 33 has a brace or bridge-piece 33, thus affordingbearings for a shaft 39, having a fixed pinion and spur-wheel 40 and 41,meshing, respectively, with the spur-Wheel 37 and pinion 36. A spiralspring 42 occupies the space between the tubes 29 and 31 and is attachedat one end to the latter and at its other end to the sleeve 34. Theconducting-wires 43 enter through the perforated boss 28 and tube 29through a notch 44 in the plate 30 at the lower end of said tube, towhich they are secured by a band 45. Finally, after being coiled aroundthe said outer tube 31 the conducting-wires pass over a suitable guidepulley or pulleys 46 and out through an opening 47 iu the lower end ofthe shell, below which the lamp 4S is supported by said wires.

To simplify this appliance when it is not desirable to have a greatlength of wrewound and unwound, the pinions and spur-wheels 36, 41, 37,and 40 and the collar 34 may be dispensed with, and in such case theupper end of the spiral spring is fastened to the disk 32. lf it isdesired, but one guide-pulley may be used, the wire passing out over thepolished surface at the opening of the shell.

It will be readily seen from the foregoing how by simply pulling thelamp thefconducting-wires may be unwound from the tubular shaft by arotary movement of the shell or casing, which, being transmitted to thespring, serves to wind the latter, and vice versa.

To retain the lamp at any desired adjustment I have herein shown an armor lever 49, connected pivotally to the boss 28 and engaging a series ofshallow teeth 50, formed in a flange 57 upon the disk at the upper endof the shell or casing. These teeth should be of such a nature that whenthe shell or casing is revolved rapidly in either direction the arm orlever 49 shall slip idly over them, while when the movement ceases itshall engage. The lamp may thus at any time be readily lowered by simplypulling it, while lin order to cause the spring-actuated mechanism toraise it a preliminary pull in a downward direction is iirst necessaryin order to release the catch.

For the stop mechanism just described, which might be termed agravity-latch, a friction mechanism might be substituted, such as shownin dotted lines in Fig. 3, where 52 designates a friction-bar attachedpivotally to the flange of the disk or cap 25 and bearing against theupper edge of the shell 26,with which it is held in contact by theaction of a screw 53. By properly regulating the tension of said screwthis device will be found very useful and efficient for the pura poseindicated.

It is obvious that the parts of the devices illust-rated in Figs. 1 and2 and in Figs. 3 and IOO IIO

4 might be very readily interchanged with each other, and that thus, forinstance, the spring-case, having the coiled spring shown in the firsttwo views, might be applied to the stationary fixture shown in Figs. 3and 4, or the tubular shaft containing the spiral spring shown in thelatter two views to the movable fixture shown in Figs. l and 2, but anysuch changes and alterationsI consider to be within the province of theskilled mechanic, and while I reserve the right to make such changes Ido not deem it necessary to describe or to illustrate them in furtherdetail. I likewise reserve the right to use any latch or retainingdevice that may be found suitable for my purpose, or to dispense withone altogether, which may be done by properly balancing the device orproportioning the strength of the spring relative to the weight to besustained.

Having thus described my invention, I claim and desire to secure byLetters Patent of the United States- I. In an electric-light-adjustingmechanism, the combination of the shell or casing, a tubular shaftjournaled within the casing, a spring, a train of gears arranged totransmit motion to the spring to wind up the same, the conducting-wirescomprising the return and flow wires formed into a single flexible cordwound upon the shaft in the casing, depending from the latter andconnected direct to the lamp, a catch applied to the transmittinggearingto lock the shaft to the casing, and an independent catch to lock thecasing when it is desired to cause the casing to rotate around theshaft, as set forth.

2. In an electric-lightadjusting mechanism, the combination, with theconductingwires joined in a single continuous iiexible cord, comprisingthe flow and return wires and directly supporting the lamp, of a shellthrough which the said conducting-wires are guided, a shaft within saidshell, a disk arranged within said shell carrying a bracket, a shaftjournaled in said bracket, a gear pinion and wheel mounted upon theshaft, meshing, respectively, with a toothed wheel and pinion arrangedto impart motion to or receive motion from the central shaft, andspring-actuated mechanism for operating the gearing to wind theconducting-wires upon said shaft, substantially as set forth..

3. In an electric-light-adjusting mechanism, the combination of atubular stem or shaft, a tube partially surrounding and connected to thesame, a sleeve journalled upon said tube, a spiral spring mounted in thespace between the tubular sha-ft and the tube surrounding the same andattached at its ends to the said tube and to the sleeve journaledthereon, a surrounding shell or casing revoluble with relation to thetubular shaft, means for transmitting motion between said shell orcasing and the revoluble sleeve, and the return and iiow wires enteringthrough the tubular shaft, connected to and wound upon the tubesurrounding the latter, and guided over a suitable pulley or pulleys outthrough an opening in the lower end of the shell, substantially as setforth.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing as my own I have hereto affixedmy signature in presence of two witnesses.

FRED H. ALDRICH.

Witnesses:

LEvI O. HARRIS, J AMES E. HENDERSON.

